The Apostle of Evolution. 165 



adopted your philosophy but assimilated it, employing your 

 terminology habitually in conversation. While Fiske is 

 busy with the principle of evolution in its application to 

 language, Roberts is applying it to the history of juris- 

 prudence. Their three favourite authors are Spencer, Mill, 

 and G. C. Lewis, although they^did not consider the last 

 two comparable with the first. * They are brimful of fire 

 and enthusiasm, and may be relied on for important assist- 

 ance. 



The editor of the North American Review* erased the 

 passages from Fiske's article which were most compli- 

 mentary to you, but the periodical has now passed into 

 other hands, f which we trust are more liberal. Mr. Fiske 

 has been solicited to become a regular contributor, and 

 says he will never again submit to the mutilation of his 

 articles. The young men had been debating for a year 

 whether it would do to write to you, and as I took the 

 liberty of encouraging them to do so I presume you have 

 heard from them before this time. Prof. Wm. B. Rogers, 

 who has constant fights with Agassiz about the develop- 

 ment hypothesis, was another of those appreciative friends 

 who acknowledged the value of your labours and expressed 

 a desire to be of assistance to our project. 



While in Boston I met Mr. Silsbee, who was in remark- 

 ably fine health, his northern expedition having evidently 

 been of immense benefit to him. He heartily approved of 

 my plans, and was of considerable assistance to me. To 

 resume business, I may add that several of our leading and 

 most important organs of public opinion (newspapers and 

 periodicals Silliman's Journal, Atlantic Monthly, Boston 

 Journal and Transcript, the New York Tribune, Times, 

 and Evening Post) are pledged to full notices of anything 

 from your pen. As I should like to bring these influences 



* Rev. Andrew Preston Peabody. 



f James Russell Lowell and Charles Eliot Norton. 



